DLL makes Schiphol taxi possible for Tesla

Tesla has ousted Mercedes as the standard taxi at Schiphol. For the second time the airport invited tenders for its taxi transportation. One of the winners was the BIOS group (passenger transport), which submitted its tender in close cooperation with DLL Automotive.

Sustainability was a decisive criterion in this second call for tenders, over and above other quality aspects. The Mercedes E class diesel used to be the prevalent taxi at the airport. But Schiphol wanted to make passenger transport at the airport sustainable. The parties where therefore asked to provide a solution for this when submitting their tenders. The BIOS Group decided to offer electric transport, and approached DLL through its own bank, Rabobank Rotterdam, to discuss the possibilities of leasing the Tesla Model S. The Model S is big enough to seat four passengers comfortably. The vehicle also has a spacious boot.

Electric cars: no practical data
Driving in electric motorcars is still fairly new, which means that there is not much data available about aspects like maintenance and wear-and-tear. Schiphol taxis average about 100,000 kilometres a year. Can electric cars do the same? Account manager Gerard Schalken of DLL: “We are dealing with an item that is out of the ordinary, a non-standard asset. Tesla has only been on the market for a short while and the Model S is one of their newer models. That was the biggest challenge for us. What helped us considerably was that we could base our calculations on the knowledge and experience that Athlon Car Lease has in connection with the electrically-powered Tesla.”

Working together
Because the BIOS Group did not require the full-service solution provided by Athlon, DLL got together with the automotive manufacturer to try to find a different solution. In the end the BIOS Group proposed to Schiphol that it would deploy 63 Teslas. The concession is for a maximum of eight years. The point of departure is that the Teslas will last the first four years. DLL has offered a leasing solution for that period. This deal became possible after agreements had also been made with Tesla. The automotive manufacturer has given guarantees to BIOS in connection with mileage and availability.

SolutionDLL has proposed a four-year financing construction without residual value risk. If, after four years, the concession is not extended for another four years and Schiphol decides to work with other parties, neither the BIOS Group nor DLL will be left with a debt. Whatever the cars can then be sold for will go to the BIOS Group because it is and will remain the owner of the cars.

Financial director of the BIOS Group Pim van der Boom: “The Rabobank is our local bank, and we have been doing business with DLL for many years. But working with Teslas is new for both DLL and for us. How do you tackle that? You start on a new project like this together, and it is important that decisions are made at the right time. That all went very well. At an early stage DLL gave us the clarity and certainty that we needed for this special tender.”

To make electric passenger transportation possible, Schiphol has invested in supercharger capacity which means that the BIOS Group has its own charging station at its Schiphol branch. This is one of the largest and most innovative Tesla charging stations in the world. There is still a lot of confusion about how far electric cars can travel on a single charge. Fully charged, a Tesla S type has a range of about 450 kilometres.

Umbrella facility for Financial Lease, contracts have a term of 48 months.

During the past few years taxi transport at Schiphol has been carried out by the BIOS Group (among others) using conventional vehicles (Mercedes, diesel). One of the requirements for the new concession was to increase the sustainability of taxi transport at and around Schiphol.

BIOS decided to meet this requirement by using fully-electric vehicles, which resulted in it getting the concession for the next eight years.